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B.C. NDP Leader David Eby resigns in a speech to supporters on election night, in Vancouver, on Oct. 24.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
British Columbians took a huge political gamble this weekend, handing power to someone they barely know who leads a party that looked like it was imploding only a few weeks ago.
But such was the level of anger and disgust over NDP Leader David Eby’s move to call a snap election – amid provincewide municipal elections no less, and with two years left in his mandate – that the public decided B.C. Conservative Party Leader Lorne Doerkson sounded normal enough to trust.
It’s impossible to overstate the enormity of the challenge now confronting him and his party.
First, we must say a few words about the man they vanquished – Mr. Eby. Since first being elected as an MLA in 2013, knocking off then-Liberal premier Christy Clark, Mr. Eby was viewed as a rising political star. As attorney-general, he became the heir apparent to much-loved NDP premier John Horgan. When Mr. Horgan resigned in the fall of 2022 because of illness, Mr. Eby was virtually handed the job.
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But governing never came easy to him. He was unquestionably bright, but lacked the natural charm and easygoing nature of his predecessor. Where Mr. Horgan was a delegator, Mr. Eby centralized decision-making. He also treated the treasury as an ATM, using it to pay for things his government couldn’t afford, including grossly irresponsible public sector contracts.
Provincial debt soared to historic levels under his watch. Meantime, emergency rooms across the province were halting services for short periods because of staffing shortages, while doctors and specialists were resigning because of workload issues.
And that only begins to scratch the surface of the many problems Mr. Eby left behind for Mr. Doerkson and his party to clean up.
Had Mr. Eby been paying more attention, he would have detected the public wasn’t in the mood for an early election and that calling one was likely to make people even more ornery.
And it did.
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Still, he couldn’t resist pouncing on the opportunity that an opposition party in disarray offered. The disastrous new leadership of the Conservatives’ Kerry-Lynne Findlay was too juicy a situation to pass up. But when she resigned unexpectedly and the party announced that the relatively unknown Lorne Doerkson was being named interim leader, Mr. Eby didn’t pause his plan to go to the polls.
A more savvy politician would have slammed the brakes on his election plan right then and there. But Mr. Eby, no doubt pushed by advisers who showed him public opinion polling in his favour, decided to push forward.
It was a fatal mistake.
He isn’t the first politician to be punished for his political hubris. The scrap bin of history is full of them. And there are some, like former Ontario premier David Peterson, who will doubtlessly be overjoyed by Saturday’s outcome in B.C. Now, Mr. Peterson is unlikely to be cited as frequently or as instantaneously as a cautionary tale of the hazards of snap elections. He called one in 1990 when his Liberal government had a healthy majority. So disgusted was the public over the cynical move, it gave the NDP a majority. Mr. Peterson lost his own seat.
There needs to be something said here about Mr. Doerkson’s leadership. In a short period of time, he united the Conservative Party caucus, bringing back to the fold many of those MLAs who had left it over Ms. Findlay’s extreme lurch to the right. The new leader was not interested in making culture wars his priority.
Mr. Doerkson showed people he is a “normal” Conservative, whose priority is the big issues facing the province – health care, the economy, education – and not trans athletes in women’s sports.
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As long as he continues to act and lead as a regular, middle-of-the-road conservative, he should be just fine. The moment he caves to loud voices promoting fringe issues, he will get himself in trouble. The premier-designate needs to remember he is leading a centre-right coalition, one previously represented by the BC Liberal Party, and Social Credit Party before that.
Managed properly, this type of coalition has shown it can rule B.C. for long periods of time, in fact decades longer than any other political alliance in the province’s history.
As for the NDP, well, they know the position in which they find themselves all too well. While its caucus has been drastically reduced in size, the party will still have several experienced MLAs who will constitute what should be a formidable Opposition.
With Mr. Eby announcing his resignation as leader Saturday, the party will soon need to begin the process of replacing him.
The pollsters said the B.C. public was demanding change in this election. Well, they got it. We’ll soon find out what that means.